New college deans appointed

Since May, Yale College Dean Mary Miller announced the appointment of new deans for Berkeley, Branford and Ezra Stiles colleges.

Mia Genoni, a Mellon Special Collections humanities postdoctoral fellow and lecturer in the Humanities Department, has replaced Kevin Hicks ’89 as the dean of Berkeley College. Hilary Fink, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Slavic Languages and Literatures Department, will take over the Branford deanship. And Camille Lizarribar, a former adjunct lecturer in the Directed Studies program, is the new dean of Ezra Stiles College. Lizarribar replaces Jennifer Wood, whose tenure as dean ended last semester.

Since arriving at Yale in 2008, Genoni has taught undergraduate seminars and has read or advised senior essays in both the Humanities and the History of Art departments, Miller said in an e-mail to Berkeley students. During her time at Yale, Genoni has been praised as a teacher who engages closely with her students, offering them both challenges and encouragement, Miller added.

“Residential deans have the opportunity to make an immediate difference in the lives of their students — to listen to them and aid and advise them on matters ranging from the academic to the social,” Genoni said in an interview following her appointment in May.

As dean, she said she intends to work closely with Master Marvin Chun to listen to students and foster “a wonderful atmosphere of collegiality and support.”

Lizarribar, whose appointment was announced three weeks later in June, lectured in the literature and the history and politics sections of the Directed Studies program in the spring and fall semesters of 2007. In addition, she has worked as a legal research associate at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, where she helped to organize a colloquium on food, agriculture and the environment this spring, she said. While she is not currently teaching at Yale, Lizarribar said she intends to teach one course per year beginning in 2011.

“I have always enjoyed working with students, and the deanship is a unique opportunity to do so both at the individual level and within the broader context of a community,” Lizarribar said in an interview in June. “My aim is to be a resource for my students for any matters, from the mundane to the life-changing, and to be an active contributor to the daily life and well-being of the college.”

As Ezra Stiles undergoes renovation, Lizarribar moved into Swing Space in July, accompanied by her husband and two young sons, Arcadio, 5 and Tadeo, 3. Genoni also moved into Berkeley College over summer with her Pekingese, Ming Tea.

Fink, who came to Yale’s Slavic Languages and Literature Department in 1996 and has served as its director of undergraduate studies for more than half that time, had been a Branford fellow and freshman academic adviser to many in the college.

“The depth and breadth of her experience will serve her and all of you well as she begins her work as dean this summer,” Miller said.